A few weeks later, mid July
Elizabeth drove home after a very long day at work. Becky had called in sick so she had been alone and it had been busy.
Jack had promised to do the laundry and get the boys to clean their room so she could come home and take a relaxing shower before worrying about dinner.
As she walked in, she heard laughing and yelling and a very loud video game.
"No, Dad! You ran me off the road!"
"All is fair in love and MarioKart, Bren! Ha ha!"
She looked at the living room and raised her eyebrows. Pizza boxes, plates, napkins, and a chewed up roll of paper towels were strewn everywhere.
"Jack!" she yelled so she could be heard over the noise.
"Uh oh!" Sawyer said, pausing the game. "Hi, Mama."
"What's going on? It looks like a bomb went off in here."
"We are just playing a game," Sawyer told her.
"Game's over for now. Did you boys clean your room?"
"No."
"Please do that. Now, please."
"But we are in the middle…" the look on her face made him stop talking. "Yes, ma'am."
Brennan followed his brother out of the room. Elizabeth looked at Jack and then began cleaning.
"Babe."
"Did you get the laundry done at least?"
"We kind of lost track of time."
"You had all day. I don't understand how nothing got done."
Dash barked outside the sliding door to the deck. She let him in, immediately regretting it be because he ran over and started chewing on the paper towel roll. "Dash, no no," she told him, picking up the shreds and putting them in the garbage. "I need some time," she told him, walking away to take that shower.
….
Jack looked around. It was his fault. He wanted to just have fun with the boys and figured they could do chores later. Later turned into an all-day marathon of MarioKart and Sonic the Hedgehog.
He put food in the dog's bowl and then while he was distracted, he grabbed the pizza boxes and napkins and put them in the trash can in the garage. Next he took their plates and put them in the sink.
He straightened the living room pillows and cushions and called for Italian food to be delivered. Then he checked on the boys.
"Hey guys." He sat on Sawyer's bottom bunk.
"Dad, is Mom mad at us?"
"She's a bit mad at me. I told her I would have you guys clean your room and do laundry but I didn't."
Brennan put one last armful of toys in their toy box. Then he moved up the ladder to make his bed.
Sawyer put the laundry in their basket and pushed it over to him. "I just have to make my bed and we will be done."
"Good job, boys. Thank you for cleaning your room."
He took the basket of laundry down the hall to the large laundry room. He took each pair of pants out of the basket and emptied the pockets before putting them in the washer.
Then he dumped the rest in and added detergent and fabric softener.
About fifteen minutes later, he heard the doorbell and went to pay for the food.
"Boys, can you set the table?"
They jumped into action and grabbed two plates each off the counter and carefully placed them at the table.
Elizabeth came out of the bedroom looking refreshed and beautiful and a little less mad. "Hey everyone."
"Hi, Mom." Brennan ran over and hugged her.
"Hi, baby." Sawyer was next. "Hi, sweetheart."
Jack poured a glass of wine for each of them. She declined it though. "You don't want wine?"
"No, thank you. I'll have water."
He poured hers into his glass and grabbed a glass of water for her. "Dinner is ready."
She saw the clean living room and was impressed. He was pretty quick.
They sat and prayed and then dug in. The boys had spaghetti and meatballs and Jack had lasagna with a nice salad. Elizabeth had Bolognese. It was amazing.
"This is so good, Jack. Thanks for getting it."
He offered his hand and waited until she put her slender fingers into his palm. "You're welcome but I'm sorry about today. I should have done what we agreed on. Laundry is started and the boy's room and the living room are clean now."
"Thank you. I'm sorry I reacted that way. I had a very long day."
"Tomorrow is Saturday. So why don't the boys and I pick you up from the store and we can go putt putting?"
"Yay! Can we, Mom?"
"Sure. That sounds fun."
"We can eat at DiMillos' too," Jack suggested.
"What's that?" Sawyer wondered.
"Its where Mom and I had our first date and where I was going to ask her to marry me."
"Cool."
Jack leaned toward Elizabeth and kissed her cheek. "I love you, honey."
She smiled and kissed him back. "I love you too."
….
NEW HAVEN
Don put his arm around Grace's shoulders as they sat on his couch. He had cooked dinner and now they were having their cup of tea.
"I've been thinking a lot about New York….and I…I really think I want to go with you."
"You do?" He was shocked. Yes, they had made great strides in breaking through her social issues but he didn't think she would say yes to the trip.
"If you are ok with that."
"Of course I am. Annie is excited to meet you, Gracie. I've told her all about you and…this will be good. For all of us."
"I've also been thinking a lot about you and me. As much as I didn't think it was possible…I fell in love with you. It scares me but that's how I feel."
He turned toward her and tucked her hair behind her ear, loving how honest she was. "Why does it scare you?"
"I don't want to lose another person I love. It hurts too much." A tear rolled down her cheek and then disappeared when she brushed it away. He couldn't promise she wouldn't lose him at some point. They had both lost a spouse. He would just tell her what he knew.
"What I've learned through everything is that if we refuse to let people into our hearts, we are going to miss out on something wonderful. And this, Gracie, is definitely a wonderful thing."
She leaned toward him and rested her head against his shoulder. He was so strong and kind. He didn't push her to do or feel things she wasn't ready for. He just waited patiently for her to catch up. For that she was grateful.
That being said, he was close and he smelled spicy and she really wanted to know what kissing him would be like.
As if he could read her mind, he lowered his mouth to hers. It was better than she had imagined and when he pulled away, she immediately missed the soft, gentle warmth of his lips.
"Was that okay?"
She nodded and then lifted her mouth to his, needing his kiss more than her next breath. "I love you," she whispered as he held her a moment later. Now she understood Elizabeth a bit more. A second chance at love was absolutely possible if you opened your heart to it.
"I love you too."
….
PORTLAND
"Hon?" Jack ran his fingers through her silky hair as she relaxed against his chest.
"Hm?"
"Are you pregnant?"
"I don't know. It's too early to tell." They'd only been married 28 days.
"I just thought because you didn't want wine at dinner…"
"I just want to play it safe. If I am pregnant, I don't want to take a chance."
Jack continued stroking her hair until he started to doze off himself. And then his work phone rang. He sat up and grabbed his phone. "Thornton here."
"Jack, we have a problem."
"What is it, Bill?" Jack rushed out the door to his office and turned his three monitors on.
"Boss, the alarms are going off at Dancer's downtown. I'm on my way and so is Flynn but this is serious. There are no functioning cameras. They've been disconnected or something."
"I see that." The screen was black, all eight cameras in the two story office building were either malfunctioning or who knew what. "I just got an alert that the cops are en route. When you get there, if you see anything fishy, broken glass or anything, don't go in. Wait for the cops."
"Will do. I'll let Flynn know."
"Keep me apprised. I'll be by my phone until clear."
"Got it."
Elizabeth stood in the door in her nightgown, a worried look on her face. "What's happening?"
"Alarms at a building downtown. The cameras aren't functioning so we don't know what's happening. Could be a malfunction but more than likely it's not."
"Do you have to go? I mean, it sounds dangerous."
"I may. Right now, my men and the cops can handle it." She nodded. "Hon, come here," he told her, holding his hand out for her to take. When she was sitting on his lap, he kissed her. "Its ok. I probably won't need to go."
"But you may."
"Yes."
"When will you know?"
"Soon." She nodded again and leaned her head on his shoulder. This was the first time she was having to deal with the somewhat scary aspects of his job. She couldn't lose him now, a month into their life together. She wrapped her arms around him tighter and let out a breath.
"I love you," she told him.
"I love you too."
They sat in silence for a few moments. Jack honestly thought she had fallen asleep. Then his phone rang again.
"Thornton, here."
"Boss, Flynn has been shot. Intruder was in the building when the cops and Jesse went inside. They got him in the shoulder, sir."
"Which hospital?"
"Portland General."
"I'm on my way." Jack stood, making sure Elizabeth was on her feet. "I need to go. I'm sorry."
She nodded and watched him rush away. She headed to the kitchen and made him a large travel mug of coffee, figuring he would need it.
He walked out five minutes later, dressed in his dark suit and tie. "I made you coffee."
"Thank you, hon." He could see she was scared so he pulled her close for a moment. "I love you, Elizabeth."
"Please be careful." She kissed him, conveying her emotions very well. "I really need you, Jack and our boys need you."
"I need you too. I am just going to the hospital."
"Then why are you armed? Obviously you are wearing that for a reason."
"I am always armed, babe, when it involves my job." His phone buzzed on his hip. "I need to go."
He rushed out to the garage and drove off a moment later. She went and sat on the couch to wait. There was no way she could sleep now.
….
Jack hurried into the emergency room of Portland General about twenty minutes later. Because he was technically a detective with the Portland police, he was able to show his badge and get in relatively easily past security.
He walked into the waiting room and found Bill. "Avery, ok, what happened?" Bill went on to describe the situation and how Flynn waited as instructed until the police arrived because the door had obviously been tampered with. When they went inside, the intruder just started firing. Thankfully only Flynn had been hit, but his shoulder was really messed up. "He's in surgery right now. The bullet nicked an artery and damaged a bone."
"Did the cops get the intruder?"
"Yeah, they were able to take him down shortly after Flynn was hit."
"Good. What is the damage like in the building?"
"Front door was shattered by a bullet, lock broken. Inside there are a few bullet holes in the walls. When we left, Coulter was handling Mr. Dancer and helped him coordinate a cleanup."
"Great. Well, it sounds like you have it all taken care of. Now we just need to get those cameras back online so we can monitor them."
…..
Elizabeth fell asleep around five in the morning, unable to keep her eyes open any longer. So around seven when she was supposed to be leaving for the store, the boys woke her up.
"Mom?"
She forced her eyes open and blinked a few times to clear the blurriness.
"Bren?"
"Why are you sleeping out here? Where's Dad?"
"He had to go to work. Wait, what time is it?" The sunlight through the window woke her up finally.
"The clock says 7."
"Oh my goodness. Ok, listen guys. I have to take you to the store with me today. So I need your help this morning to get out on time. Bren, can you take Dash outside please? Sawyer, can you feed him and make sure he has water? I am going to go get dressed and I will meet you back here and we will eat breakfast."
"Are we still going to do putt putt later?" Sawyer asked.
"I don't know. We may have to do it another time."
Not only did she get just two hours of sleep but Jack hadn't slept at all. She guessed that they would reschedule it.
….
Around ten o'clock she thought she was going to go crazy if she didn't hear from him soon. He hadn't let her know that he was safe. She hoped and prayed he was, but there was always a chance.
"Mom, can we go home?" Brennan asked her.
"No, baby, I'm sorry. There isn't anyone there to watch you right now."
"But Dash! He's hungry, Mom! I know he is and he probably has to go outside." He was yelling and she didn't understand why.
"Brennan, you heard me. What's going on?" she sighed at her impatient tone.
"You're mean! I want Dad!"
"Excuse me?"
"I'm here, I'm here. What's going on?" He walked in just in time to hear Brennan yell at Elizabeth.
"Dad! We need to go home."
"Brennan, I think you need to rethink how you were speaking to your mother."
"Dad, it's boring here and Dash is hungry and needs to go out."
"So that means that you need to be rude to your mom?"
"No." Jack raised his eyebrows at Brennan. "I'm sorry, Mom."
"What is going on, Bren?" Jack asked, pulling him over to a chair.
"Nothing."
"Well, have a seat and when you are ready to tell me, I will be ready to listen."
"How long do I have to sit here for?"
"Until you decide you'll tell me why you yelled at Mom."
"That's not fair!"
"You sit there quietly or you're grounded."
"Then we can go putt putting?"
"No, not today, bud."
Brennan glared at him and crossed his arms, looking away. "You promised! You said we were going."
"Sometimes we can't do everything we want to do. I had to work and now I need to sleep."
"Maybe that's what he needs too," Elizabeth told him.
"I'm not tired!" Brennan protested.
"Bren, hush!" Jack said loudly. "Yeah. I think that's what we all need." He stepped forward and looked at her closely. "Did you stay up waiting for me?"
"Yeah."
"I'm sorry you were worried."
She shook her head. "It's fine." Then the tears started and because she was exhausted, she couldn't stop them. "I'm just glad you're safe."
He pulled her into his arms and held her for a moment. "I'm going to take Brennan home and hopefully we can both sleep. See you soon?" She nodded and wiped her eyes.
"Let's go Bren. Time to head home."
…..
Later that night…
"So apparently Bren heard you talking to Aunt Vi on the phone about how dangerous my job is and that you were scared. So he acted out."
"Oh no. It was my fault. I can't believe I wasn't more careful."
"I explained my job to him and how I really don't put myself in very many situations where I'm actually in danger. He seemed to understand. I just want to make sure you do."
"I do. Honestly, I just overreacted."
"I still want to explain." He grabbed his wallet from the dresser and opened it. "This is my badge."
"I know. I've seen it."
"Yes, but the thing I didn't explain before is that I'm not just a security officer. Elizabeth, periodically I act as an undercover detective for the Portland PD."
"Undercover?"
"Yeah. I've tried to keep it to myself because its safer that way but I don't feel right keeping it from you anymore."
"What does that part of your job involve?"
"Sometimes, not often, I need to go to different parts of the city and work a case. It can be dangerous but there are always bugs and surveillance and back up if I get into trouble." He saw the look on her face before it vanished. It was a big deal that he was telling her about that part of his job. "What are you thinking?"
"That I was right to stay up all night worrying about you. I can't believe you kept that from me." She rolled onto her side and closed her eyes. She felt let down and, dare she think it, betrayed. What else was he keeping from her to protect her?